Browsing by Author "Friman, Tuula"

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to explore the vocational education teacher's visions of the future working life in the teaching field and the working life skills needed there. The purpose is also to find out how the teacher in his or her work takes into account the change needs of the future and how he or she teaches and prepares students for the working life of the future. The focus of the review is on the vocational education school teacher's views on the future working life of the motor vehicles sector and the working life skills needed to work there. In this thesis the concept of “future” means the situation after next ten years. The thesis focuses on three research questions: 1) What will the working life of the field to be taught be like in the future? 2) What working life skills do students in the field of teaching need in the working life of the future? 3) How will a vocational education teacher prepare students for the working life of the future? A semi-structured theme interview has been used as a method of data collection in this thesis, and the data has been collected by interviewing 6 from vocational education in the motor vehicles sector. The interviews were conducted as individual interviews via video call over remote connections. The method used for the analysis of the material was thematic content analysis, theming the material on the future prospects of the motor vehicles sector, the future working life skills needed in the field, and the guidance and preparation of the teacher's current students for the working life of the future. The material was also typed into two further subsections, the themes of which were related to the renewal of teaching work required by changes in working life and the everyday challenges of teaching work. The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of a literature review, the topics of which consist of the drivers of change in working life, future working life skills as well as the objectives of vocational education and training and, in general, vocational education in the motor vehicles sector in Finland. The research results found that vocational education teachers are professionally minded and interested in following the changes in the field being taught, and they aim to take into account changes in the motor vehicle sector and new competence needs in working life in their work. The results of the study show that the automotive sector is undergoing a transformation and that there will be more and more demanding jobs in its future working life and they will require employees to learn learning ability and new skills. The future time span for a vocational education teacher in the automotive sector is short, extending to the near future, because it is the teacher's duty to train students to become professionals in the current working life. Although the competence needs of the change in the working life of the future are known, there is no possibility to reach further into the future in the everyday life of teaching. In addition to teaching, challenges for the teacher are created by heterogeneous student groups, the safety concerns raised by new technologies, such as the electrification of cars, and the disruptions in teaching situations and educational challenges that have increased with the expansion of compulsory education. With new technologies, it is necessary to update the teacher's own competence and, due to busy work, renewing one's expertise would require a fresh attitude and the use of one's free time to learn new things.